We had a brilliant time together at the end of last week. She added a request to my list of things to do:"help nate wrist warmer" and by 5.30am (!) she was rewinding some of the yarn she painted on her visit here last year. She selected a wonderful mulitcoloured wool: mainly pinks and turquoises, with shots of purples, greens and yellow but also asked if we could buy some black yarn as she wanted stripes. (vertical stripes at that, this was also her first knitting design). She also discovered that her older sister must have appropriated all the needles. So we set off to Chelmsford with a cunning plan: buy black yarn, buy needles, visit all-you-can-eat-Chinese-buffet, buy purple nail varnish (all the better for showing off your wristwarmer).
Having eaten far too much (neither of us had room for the free ice cream, imagine that) we plonked ourselves on a bench and cast on. At first she was a bit anxious ("suppose people stare at us, what if I someone I know sees me?") but soon she was engrossed. As Miss Pegs knitted, I crocheted. We weren't jeered at but I did see several people looking on in surprise and one elderly lady gave me a thumbs up, which was rather wonderful).
Once home, Pegs put the dvd of St Trinians (new version) on, and soon proved that she could multi-task, quickly getting the hang of knitting whilst watching (it took me years to get that far, clearly my Mum has had a far better pupil in Miss Pegs than she had in me!) She stopped, reluctantly, for a meal of cheese and lettuce followed by raspberries, cream and chocolate cake (the sort of meal that aunties devise for hot days, particularly aunties who want maximum crocheting, minimum meal prepping time) then knitted on whilst watching strange programmes on strange channels with names like "Scuzz" and "Dave". (How can you have a TV channel called Dave? Yes, Auntie has yet to enter the brave, far-from-new, world of Freeview).
Towards the end she started to get a bit tired, so asked me to do the last 10 rows, whilst she made a dress out of a blue bin liner, ready for scout camp. Note how both wristwarmer and dress were very successful.
And I was amused to see that she was still wearing the wristwarmer when she headed off to Scout camp the next day, with a pack that is almost as large as she is.
I was delighted to see her showing the wrist warmer off to her friends, too, saying, very proudly: "I made that!"
7 comments:
Cheese and lettuce,eh? I guess the chocolate cake will excuse anything! :) Sounds as though you both had a lot of fun.
I too am troubled by the naming of a tv channel as "Dave" ... or rather, by its re-naming ... suddenly I feel that I'm no longer part of its target audience, and therefore shouldn't be watching ...
Sounds like you both had fun. I always KIP - didn't occur to me it was anything unusual but I guess it explains the funny stares I get on trains!
Oh, you are such a wondeful auntie, shopping, eating, chocolate cake, knitting, aaah, my life would be perfect if I was related to you!!!
I am married to a petrol head so Dave is ALWAYS on in our house!
Where in Chelmsford did you get yarn? I'm off there in 10 days time...
Looks like your niece is a total star - and you are, too! I love the wristwarmer; a fab use for those beautiful colours. And I bet she'll never forget her first time, either. :)
My 81 year old father is a dedicated watcher of Dave too - I fear he is probably outside their target demographic but then they don't know my dad....
I loved your story about your niece's knitting - she sounds lovely to have around and am sure she treasures her time with her aunty. Can't wait until my niece is old enough to come and play at Aunty Jane's house!
A designer in the making, ay? That's a fab wristwarmer! Not so sure about the dress :-)
Will you be my auntie too? cheese, chocolate cake, raspberries mmm.
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